Clinical Pharmacist’s Contribution to Pharmacotherapy Forcoronary Artery Disease

Abstract

Coronary artery disease (CAD) remains one of the main diseases of the 21st century for its morbidity and mortality. With the increase in life expectancy and reduction of deaths from acute coronary diseases, there is a significant increase in the disease in its chronic form, especially in the elderly. In these patients, angina pectoris represents the main presentation of the condition. This research is a narrative review carried out through bibliographic research in databases on drug treatment for CAD, and aims to describe the role of the clinical phar-macist in medication adherence. The treatment of CAD includes myocardial infarction (MI) prevention, reduction of mortality, and reduction of symptoms, improving the quality of life of patients. Beta-blockers, antiplatelet drugs, statins, and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors are the main pharmacological therapies that can reduce mortality and prevent MI, while some drugs, such as nitrates, ivabradine, trimetazidine, allopurinol, and ranolazine help minimize the occurrence of myocardial ischemia and associated symptoms. Health education focused on the importance of CAD treatment, especially in an individualized and accessible way, may favor long-term adherence. The pharmacist’s work, along with the multidisciplinary team, has the potential to help reduce hospitalizations, by rationalizing the therapy and diminishing the incidence of medication-related problems, which ultimately helps patients to have a more active life with fewer restrictions.